Originally Posted by Ionstormsucks
If you have a strong product, and if you believe in the longevity of your product, why should you make such an offer?

Maybe because they've hired one of those market research firms who figured out that the average MMOer (and even players of "strong" products such as WoW) is subscribed to a game for only 3 or 4 months and that players usually drop out waaaay before the time where the lifetime membership offer would start to cost Turbine money instead of making them money?
This offer could entirely be based on market research and economics.
It could also just be an experiment to see how well the market accepts such a preorder "flatrate" offer.
It doesn't have to be "uh-oh our game sucks so let's milk them suckers while we can". It could… but it doesn't have to be .